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Anakwanar Sek

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Anakwanar Sek (as seen by Colonel Mazho)[3c]

We serve the word of the Anarch, whose voice drowns out all others.

Catechism of the Archenemy[3d]

Anakwanar Sek was one of the Chaos warlords encountered during the famed Sabbat Worlds Crusade.[1] He held the title of "Anarch", and was the founder as well as chief commander of the highly disciplined Sons of Sek.[5]

History

A Magister under Archon Nadzybar, Sek quickly became notorious to the Imperial forces of the Crusade as the most brilliant tactician and strategist among Nadzybar's lieutenants, with the possible exception of Heritor Asphodel.[1][3a][3b]

When Nadzybar fell on Balhaut in 765.M41, bloody fights for overall command of the remaining Chaos forces began. Intelligence reports reaching the Imperial forces indicated that Sek was the favored candidate to succeed Nadzybar[3x], but eventually Urlock Gaur would win the upper hand, despite being neither a genius nor a charismatic leader. Gaur had what all other contenders did not: the Blood Pact, a disciplined and experienced land army, while the other contenders commanded nothing but bands of fanatical cultists.[3x]

Continuing in a subordinate role, however, did nothing to diminish Sek's genius or his fearsome reputation among the Imperial Crusade force. Sek was chosen as one of the two commanders to spearhead Urlock Gaur's vicious counterstrike against Warmaster Macaroth's ambitious Cabal Salient. Sek commanded a division of the Blood Pact occupying Enothis, which not only repulsed an Imperial armoured offensive against his base in the Trinity Hives, but nearly succeeded in establishing air superiority, using mobile aircraft carriers in the desert to extend the effective range of his air forces and bomb Imperial cities far in advance of what the Imperial forces believed was possible.[4a] Only after the Battle of the Zophonian Sea were the Imperials able to turn the tide, allowing Lord Militant Humel's retreating forces to reach safety, consolidate with their reinforcements, and re-assault the Trinity Hives. This second assault was successful, though Sek escaped the planet.[4b]

The combined efforts of Sek and the other Magisters nearly succeeded in cutting off the Crusade's head in the Khan Group, and the counterstrikes caused millions of deaths among both Imperial military personnel and citizens.[3x]

Part of what made Sek so dangerous is that, atypically of all the Chaos warlords, including the Gaur, he was capable of subtlety and finesse. He possessed a particular skill with propaganda, and the use of terror as a weapon. He and Enok Innokenti both delighted in deliberately leaving the vox channels on besieged Imperial worlds open, so that nearby systems could hear the defenders' frantic cries for help and reports of unthinkable atrocities committed by the Blood Pact. Where another Chaos warlord might capture an Imperial world with mass bombardment taking weeks, the Blood Pact forces commanded by Sek conquered many targets virtually overnight, after their defenders' morale simply collapsed.[3x]

One of Sek's "masterpieces" was the Addolorata Incident, when an Imperial fleet in retreat to friendly lines was fired upon by the over-anxious gun crews of the star forts they were attempting to reach, who had mistaken them for a disguised Chaos force. Before the confusion was sorted out, the Imperial fleet was all but destroyed, and the star forts badly mauled, allowing Sek's forces to sweep in and capture both with minimal losses.[3x]

Although the situation in the Khan Group was stabilized, Warmaster Macaroth remained wary of some new move by Sek, who Macaroth could not afford to underestimate. This is speculated to be one of the reasons why Macaroth re-tasked Lord Militant Cybon and Marshal Blackwood with guarding the rear flank of the Crusade, an apparently menial assignment which could have become vitally important if Sek launched a new offensive from an unexpected direction.[3x]

Eventually, however, Sek grew tired of his subordinate role and began building a new army in secret. It was on the Agri World Gereon that Sek began the training of the Sons of Sek, an army that, like the Blood Pact, was trained, organized, and equipped to the same degree as the Imperial Guard, but loyal only to Sek.[2] Word of this reached the Crusade force, and some Imperial Tacticians speculated that the Crusade might help itself by provoking a civil war between the Gaur and Sek, although the last thing the Imperial forces wanted was for Sek to emerge victorious as the new Archon.[3x]

After the Imperial raid on Salvation's Reach, Sek became embroiled in a two-front war, battling both the Imperium as well as his rival Gaur. He ordered his officers to speed up recruitment for the Sons.[5] Ultimately, however, Anakwanar Sek was killed on Urdesh[6] in 792.M41;[7] the psychic shockwave of his demise drove many of his followers instantly insane or outright killed them on and around Urdesh.[5] Some surviving Sons of Sek attempted to restore the voice through Warp rituals; most failed. In one ritual, however, Damogaur Gerik realized that Sek's ambition and scheming had been his ultimate undoing, and that his successor had to be truly empty and just follow the orders of higher powers - thus he became the new vessel of the voice, mutating into Sek's image yet completely different in his vision for the future.[6]

Sources